Books - the minimalist dilemma

I've seen a few social media posts on the subject of book collections and minimalism. What do you do with your favourite book collection? How many books should you keep? Is it actually wrong to get rid of old books? What about all those books that you'll never read? The Japanese have a word for a book hoard  - tsunduko. It refers to buying books that you'll never read and letting them pile up. Then, there's the TBR (to be read) pile, another term fondly used by some fellow editors.

There was a time, in a previous life, when I had three wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookcases. When I moved, the contents filled 32 boxes! At the time, I was a prolific reader of literary fiction. One year I read all the titles on the Booker shortlist. This collection was disbanded when we went travelling in 2007, and since then I've read mostly non-fiction, focusing on my specific interests: yoga, travel and vegan nutrition/cooking. Despite severely reining in my purchases and making full use of the library, the shelves have swelled. I've also accumulated quite a collection of French fiction books. These all made their way across the channel to the UK and then, just recently, back again. And there lies the dilemma, as the bookcases didn't come too. So, it is time to think about slimming down the collection. 

Back to the questions in the first paragraph. What to do with all these books, currently crammed into an IKEA Pax unit, along with too many CDs and DVDs. My first thought was to simply pop down to Bordeaux and buy a new Billy bookcase from IKEA. There's enough space in the spare room. But one thing we decided on moving here is to avoid acquiring more "stuff", or at least if its unavoidable then to buy second hand. So, I'm keeping a close eye on Facebook Marketplace, no doubt sooner or later one will turn up. In the meantime,  I'm working on a plan to whittle down the collection to books which meet the "four Rs" criteria.

I came across the four Rs in a minimalism blog post.  The premise being that you should only keep books that meet the criteria of being books to reread, recommend, keep for reference or are rare. Otherwise,  adopt the fifth R and recycle them, to a book bank, charity shop or book exchange. I decided to view my collection in light of these criteria. First, my collection of French fiction easily falls into the category of 'reread'. However, rather than keep them all, the plan is to reread each book and then donate it to the little book bank in the village. Although I've read all of them once, this was some years ago and now my French is (hopefully) a bit better, I'm enjoying them more. Once I'm through, I'll join the library. When we were in the UK I didn't read much, maybe I was focused on crochet or maybe Netflix was too tempting. Without broadcast or catchup TV over the last few weeks I've read four books already. (I'll make a note at the end, as a reminder).

Of course, I'd always recommend my vegan book collection, but not sure how many folk would be that receptive. However, I did recently give a friend my print copy of "How not to die".  I've still got it on Kindle, so no loss there.  I count my vegan nutrition and cookery books, and my yoga manuals in the category of reference, along with all our Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. Finally, rare books? Well, I'm not sure if it counts as holding any value, but I'm glad my mum's 1949 Good Housekeeping Cookery Book has made it down here.

The books I read last month (all recommended!)

La Bibliotheque des coeurs cabosses - Katarina Bivald

Le Secret de la manufacture de chaussettes inusable - Annie Barrows

Le circle litteraire des amateurs d'epluchures de palates - Mary Ann Staffer and Annie Barrows

Elle et Lui - Marc Levy

All but three are translations. The first, which features books within the storyline, is one of my favourites that I've probably read three times now, but it's time to let it go. The 'potato peelers' was a hit in English and has been made into a film. This is quite easy to read as its written in the form of letters. The third Annie Barrows novel I'd not read before as I couldn't get into it, but on a second attempt I enjoyed it immensely. Marc Levy was also unread. A famous and prolific French author,  his writing had been recommended by several intermediate French teachers as being written in modern terms. A great story ... worthy of a film, I must check if one exists.